Ontario’s provincial election debate was held last night, but at least three of the province’s political scientists remain uninspired by the political process..From the nation’s capital, political science professor Scott E Bennett of Carleton University told the Western Standard last night’s provincial debate provoked more desperation than inspiration — as usual..“I did watch the debate. I suppose I have become jaded in watching these over the years. My main reaction is that I despair for representative and responsible government after seeing these events,” Bennett said..Bennett found Green leader Mike Schreiner “somewhat impassioned,” but said he thought he and the NDP and Liberal leaders were pushing an all-too-familiar message of more government, not less. Bennett says 1984 is over (as is ’88) and anyone working hard to seem authentic has already proven they’re not..“I think a lot of these people started their political lives watching (Brian) Mulroney and (John) Turner debate and are working for those ‘gotcha’ moments and looking to express personal authenticity… It was impressive that [Doug Ford] did not get drawn into that.”.Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, says most people don’t watch debates anyway; they just watch the news clips about them..“A lot of people are turned off by debates because they can't hear anything. People are just yelling at each other,” he told the Western Standard..Wiseman says people who go to the polls might vote — or they might anti-vote..“Elections are usually about the governing party. Do people want to keep them or do they want to get rid of them? And the last election was, ‘Okay, they wanted to get rid of [Liberal Leader Kathleen] Wynne. So they look around to see who's an option here. Oh, well, it's the Conservatives.”.Wiseman says Ontarians voted for change in 2018 but may not have noticed how much the party they voted for looks like the one they voted out..“Policy isn't very significant in this election. In fact, Conservatives won the last election without a policy. And then the policies they did articulate, or that people identified with them, they completely reversed. Doug Ford in the last election talked about stopping the gravy train. Well, spending under this Conservative government has gone up. Not only that, they boast about it. .“In fact, they're not even calling for eliminating the deficit in their next four years; whereas in the last election, they said they had a moral imperative to get rid of the deficit.”.How can a party like this get re-elected? Wiseman says reputation can outlast reality..“People vote on the basis of their long term images of the parties. So, their image of the Conservatives, whether the Conservatives live up to it or not, is that they are better managers of the economy and of government. Their image of the NDP is that they're better for things like health care, and other welfare programs, including education. Their image of the Liberals varies in between those two poles and, in the last 20 years, has been closer to the NDP maybe even in last 40 years.”.So if debates are dismal and disingenuous, policies mean less than perception, and people vote against parties as much as they do for them, can it get any worse? Unfortunately, yes. After a long career of teaching political science, University of Western Ontario professor emeritus Salim Mansur says elections don’t matter, either..“I am not paying any attention to the Ontario election. Indeed, I am of the mind that these elections no longer matter and make no difference given the trajectory the ruling class (and all mainstream political parties are so many different mouthpieces of the same ruling class/Laurentian elite) has set Canada for the past half-century into dismantling it for Globalism,” Mansur wrote by email..“I have been preoccupied with the war in Ukraine and its causes and consequences for all of us around the world; and, in Canadian political history how and why the Canadian political system/constitution are historically now more or less clear to me a facade of the intrinsic nature of police state with its origin in English parliamentarianism. Again, it is my own lonely exercise knowing full well that my research and conclusion will make no difference in the ruling class arrangement for Canada going back to its foundation, and to the people who will not care to understand and do anything about it politically within their reach to make a difference.” .The Ontario provincial election will be held June 2.
